A THURROCK Council election candidate has conceded he has been left embarrassed by his own party’s election material – which hailed him as ‘a Covid hero’.
Luke Spillman, who was a high profile UKIP member and founder member and eventual leader of the Thurrock Independents Group on the council, is standing in the elections on Thursday, 6 May in Ockendon.
He is currently a councillor in Aveley & Uplands ward, which he won with a 562 majority in May 2016 when he was a UKIP candidate. Following the referendum vote and subsequent collapse of the UKIP party, in January 2018 Cllr Spillman and a number of his UKIP colleagues formed the Independent group. In May 2018 Cllr Spillman became the Independent Group leader and he was a staunch critic during that leadership of many of the ruling Conservative group policies.
FROM Thursday, as part of our local election coverage, we will begin our overview’s of each ward in the borough.
They follow a usual format but the bottom line is that we make a prediction at the end, which we usually get wrong.
As you may know, South Ockendon resident, Mr Perrin has been blogging for us since he fought in the Boer War.
He is by nature, a man of conviction as well as a man who doesn’t pass bee without putting it in his bonnet.
One such bee, is cllr Luke Spillman.
So here is his final piece on cllr Spillman before we try and give consistent coverage across all the wards.